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Personal Information

Name
Dr. Rahul Tongia
Title
Principal Research Scientist
Email
tongia@cstep.in
Phone
+91-80-4249-0013
Educational Background

Ph.D. Engineering & Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, 1998
Sc.B. Electrical Engineering, Brown University, 1995

Biography

Rahul Tongia is Program Director at CSTEP, and was previously at Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on infrastructure and technology for sustainable development, especially for under-served regions such as India or Africa. Using quantitative policy and decision analysis, he has focused on the Information and Communications as well as the energy/power domains. In addition to engineering-economic analyses, his work also deals with broader policy issues such as security, international collaboration (especially US-India), and technology analysis and transfer. His current work covers the broad areas of Digital Divide, ICT for Sustainable Development, Smart Grids and Smart Metering for Electricity Networks, and Energy for Developing Regions. His Carnegie Mellon webpage has more information on his past background.

CSTEP Publications

Journal Publications

1. Organizing and Editorial Committee, Materials Research Society, for MRS Bulletin's Special Issue, Harnessing Materials for Energy, 33(4), April 2008 [equivalent to co-editor]
2. A. Bharadwaj, R. Tongia, V. S. Arunachalam, “Scoping Technology Options for India’s Oil Security, Part II: Coal to Liquids and Bio-Diesel”, Bharadwaj, Current Science, 92(9), May 10, 2007
3. A. Bharadwaj, R. Tongia, V. S. Arunachalam, “Scoping Technology Options for India’s Oil Security, Part I: Ethanol for Gasoline”, Current Science, 92(8), April 25, 2007
4. R. Tongia, “Connectivity in Emerging Regions: The Need for Improved Technology and Business Models” (2007), IEEE Communications Magazine, Special Issue on New Directions in Networking Technologies in Emerging Economies, 45(1), January 2007, pp. 96-103
5. V. S. Arunachalam, R. Tongia, A. Bharadwaj, “India’s Quest for Energy Security”, Canadian Foreign Policy, 13(2) (2006)
6. A. Bharadwaj, Rahul Tongia, and V. S. Arunachalam, “Whither Nuclear Power? Energy Implications of the US-India Nuclear Power Deal” (2006) Economic and Political Weekly, 41(12) 1203-1212

Peer-Reviewed Conferences

1. Program Committee co-chair, 3rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development ICTD2009, Doha, Qatar, April 17-19, 2009
2. R. Tongia and A. Mills-Tettey, “Information, Computing, and Communications: Keys to Sustainable Global Development,” AAAS Annual Meeting, Science and Technology from a Global Perspective, Boston, February 17, 2008.
3. J. Sherwani, R. Rosenfeld, R. Tongia, et. al, “HealthLine: Speech-based Access to Health Information by Low-literate Users”, IEEE/ACM International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development ICTD2007, Bangalore, India, December 15-16, 2007, published in ICTD2007 Proceedings (IEEE).
4. F. Hussain and R. Tongia, “Community Radio for Development in South Asia: A Sustainability Study” (poster and full paper), IEEE/ACM International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development ICTD2007, Bangalore, India, December 15-16, 2007, published in ICTD2007 Proceedings (IEEE).
5. L. Xu, V. Varadharajan, J. Maravich, R. Tongia, and J. Mostow, “DeSIGN: An Intelligent Tutor to Teach American Sign Language” at SLaTE Workshop on Speech and Language Technology in Education, Farmington, Pennsylvania, Oct 1, 2007.
6. R. Tongia and E. J. Wilson, “Turning Metcalfe on his Head: The Multiple Costs of Network Exclusion”, Proceedings of the 35th Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC 2007), Vienna, Virginia, September 29, 2007.
7. J. Sherwani, N. Ali, R. Tongia, R. Rosenfeld, Y. Memon, M. Karim, G. Pappas. HealthLine: Towards Speech-based Access to Health Information by Semi-literate Users. In Proc. Speech in Mobile and Pervasive Environments, Singapore, September 2007.
8. R. Tongia, “Overcoming the Digital Divide: Rethinking Innovation and Going Beyond Connectivity” – IEEE GIIS2007 Keynote Address, Marrakech, Morocco, June 2-6, 2007.
9. J. Sherwani, R. Tongia, R. Rosenfeld, Y. Memon, M. Karim, G. Pappas, “Towards Speech Interfaces for Health Information Access by Semi-literate Users” at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2007- AI and its Benefits to Society), AI in ICT for Development Workshop, Hyderabad, January 8, 2007.
10. M. B. Dias, R. Tongia, K. Toyama, “Exploring Non-Traditional Benefits of AI to the Global Society” (Tutorial) at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2007 - AI and its Benefits to Society), Hyderabad, January 6, 2007.

Other Publications

Journal Publications

# R. Tongia, “Natural Gas Imports for India Revisited” Invited Commentary – Economic and Political Weekly, May 14, 2005, 40(20), pp. 2032-2036
# R. Tongia, “Can Broadband over PowerLine Carrier (PLC) Compete? A Techno-Economic Analysis” (2004) Telecommunications Policy 28(7-8) (2004) pp. 559–578
# R. Tongia and K. Jain, “Investing in Security – Do Not Rely on FUD” (2003) Information Systems Control Journal, Vol. 6, 2003
# R. Tongia and V. S. Arunachalam, "Natural Gas Imports for South Asia: Pipelines or Pipedreams?" (1999) Economic and Political Weekly 34(18), pp. 1054-1064 [author version]
# R. Tongia and V. S. Arunachalam, "India's Nuclear Breeders: Technology, Viability, and Options" (1998) Current Science 75(6), pp. 549-558 [author version/report]
# R. Tongia and R. Banerjee, "Price of Power in India" (1998) Energy Policy 26(7), p. 557 – 575

Peer-Reviewed Conferences

R. Tongia, “Connectivity and the Digital Divide – Technology, Policy, and Design Tradeoffs for Developing Regions” at the 34th Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC 2006), Sept. 30, 2006 published in TPRC 2006 Proceedings
# R. Tongia, “Broadband for Africa and Developing Regions – Policy Challenges more than Technical Limitations?” (poster) at WWW2006, Edinburgh, UK, May 23, 2006.
# R. Tongia and E. Subrahmanian, “ICT for Development – a Design Challenge?” (poster and full paper), IEEE/ACM International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development, ICTD2006, Berkeley, May 25-26, 2006, published in ICTD2006 Proceedings (IEEE).
# R. Tongia, “PowerLine Carrier Communications for Broadband in Developing Countries – Is there a Business Case?” Keynote Address, First International Symposium on the Economics of PLC (Power Line Communication) ISEPLC2005, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, January 28-29, 2005.
# R. Tongia, “Promises and False Promises of PowerLine Carrier (PLC) Broadband Communications – A Techno-Economic Analysis” at the 31st Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC 2003), Sept. 21, 2003 published in TPRC 2003 Proceedings.
# R. Tongia “Power Sector Development – The role of IT and new technologies” at Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering & Technology2003 (PICMET2003), July 21, 2003.

Articles
# R. Tongia “India and China need help to grow, not hectoring” Comment (OpEd) in Financial Times, Energy Special Report, November 3, 2008.
# R. Tongia, “Politics in a Pipeline” OpEd in Indian Express, February 4, 2007
# R. Tongia, Re: “Losing its Lustre” (Nobel Prize) Economist Oct 13, 2006 online.
# R. Tongia, “Networking for Africa – Open Access and Other Issues” Commentary in Book Open Access for Africa: Challenges, Recommendations, and Examples. UN ICT Task Force, New York (2005).
# V. S. Arunachalam, R. Reddy, and Rahul Tongia, “Where is the broadband?” (2004) Op-Ed in The Hindu, January 26, 2004.
# V. S. Arunachalam and R. Tongia, “Sustainable Peace: Moving Beyond Terrorism “ (2001) Eisenhower Institute.
# V. S. Arunachalam and R. Tongia, "Response: India's Nuclear Breeders" (1999) Frontline 16(3).

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Member for
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